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I.  Frontispiece 74 

II.  The  Confederate  Congress — James  G.  Ramsay,  M.  D 75 

III.  Opportunity 83 

IV.  Zack  Thompson,  the  Blacksmith — Lucy  McGee  Glenn 84 

V.  Sketches 88 

VI.  Caieers  for  Women — Dr.  Claribel  Cone 96 

VII.  Editorials 112 

VIII.  Among  Ourselves 114 

IX.  Alumna;  and  Others 122 

X.  Marriages 125 

XI.  Literary  Notes 126 

XII.  In  Lighter  Vein 127 


Entered  at  the  Postoffice  at  Greensboro,  N.  C,  as  second-class  mail  matter. 


Rkece  &  Elam,  Printers,  Greensboro,  N.  C. 


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State  Normal  Magazine. 

VOL.  IV.  GREENSBORO,  N.  C,  MAY,  1900.  NO.  3 

MANAGING   EDITOR. 

MARY  M.  PETTY,  ( Faculty). 

CORNELIAN   EDITORS.  ADELPHIAN    EDITORS. 

EMMA  BERNARD,  '00    Chief.  ELEANOR  WATSON,  00,  Chief. 

LILLIE  KEATHLEY,  '00.  MARTHA  WISWALL,  '00. 

BESSIE  M.  TAYS,  '01.  DAISY  ALLEN,  '01. 

BUSINESS   MANAGER. 

DAISY  ALLEN,  '01. 

The  State  Normal  Magazine  is  published  quarterly,  from  October  to  June,  by  a  board 
of  Editors  elected  from  the  Adelphian  and  Cornelian  Literary  Societies,  under  the  direction  of 
a  Managing  Editor  chosen  from  the  Faculty. 

All  literary  contributions  may  be  sent  to  the  Managing  Editor. 

All  business  communications  of  any  kind  should  be  addressed  to  the  business  Manager. 

Terms — 50  cents  a  year,  in  advance.     Single  copies,  15  cents. 


THE  CONFEDERATE  CONGRESS. 


JAMES   G.    RAMSAY,    M.  D. 


The  Confederate  Congress  was  known  as  the  Provisional  and  the  Permanent. 
The  first  Provisional  Congress  met  in  Montgomery,  Alabama,  on  the  4th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1861,  at  the  instance  of  the  legislature  of  Mississippi.  It  was  [composed  of 
delegates  chosen  by  conventions  of  the  five  gulf  states,  with  Georgia  and  South 
Carolina.  These  met  as  one  body  and  voted  by  states,  each  state  having  one  vote. 
Howell  Cobb,  of  Georgia,  was  elected  President,  and  Johnson  J.  Hooper,  of  Ala- 
bama, Secretary.  A  provisional  constitution  was  adopted.  Jefferson  Davis,  of 
Mississippi,  was  chosen  President,  and  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  of  Georgia,   Vice- 


76  STATE  NORMAL  MAGAZINE. 


President  of  the  Confederacy,  and  were  duly  inaugurated  on  the  18th  day  of 
February. 

The  Texas  ordinance  of  secession  was  submitted  on  the  15th,  but  the  delegates 
from  that  state  did  not  take  their  seats  until  the  2nd  of  March.  North  Carolina  had 
not  then  seceded,  but  David  L.  Swain,  M.  W.  Ransom  and  John  L.  Bridgers,  hav- 
ing been  appointed  commissioners  by  the  Legislature,  were  admitted  to  seats  as 
such,  by  the  congress,  on  the  second  day  of  its  session. 

This  congress  held  five  sessions — two  in  Montgomery,  and  three  in  Richmond, 
and  adjourned  sine  die,  on  the  17th  of  February,   1862. 

In  the  meantime  Virginia,  Arkansas,  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee  having 
seceded,  and  delegates  from  these  states,  and  Kentucky  and  Missouri  having  been 
admitted,  with  a  delegate  from  the  Territory  of  Arizona  (although  Kentucky  and 
Missouri  had  not  seceded),  the  whole  number  of  members  at  the  close  was  about 
one  hundred  and  fifteen.  It  was  an  able  body,  especially  during  its  first  session, 
when  nearly  one  half  of  its  members  were  ex-members  of  the  United  States 
Congress. 

The  delegates  from  North  Carolina  were  first  admitted  July  20th,  1861,  at 
Richmond.  They  consisted  of  the  following  very  able  and  experienced  gentlemen, 
viz:  George  W.  Davis,  W.  W.  Avery,  W.  N.  H.  Smith,  Thomas  D.  McDowell, 
A.  W.  Venable,  John  M.  Morehead,  R.  C.  Puryear,  A.  T.  Davidson,  Burton 
Craige  and  Thomas  Ruffin. 

PERMANENT    CONGRESS. 

The  first  permanent  congress  convened  in  Richmond  on  the  18th  day  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1862,  and  consisted  of  two  Senators  from  each  of  the  thirteen  states  repre- 
sented, and  one  hundred  and  six  Representatives,  and  four  delegates  from  the 
Territories.  George  Davis  and  William  T.  Dortch  were  the  Senators  from  North 
Carolina,  and  the  Representatives  were  Robert  R.  Bridgers,  Owen  R.  Keenan, 
Thomas  D.  McDowell,  Thomas  S.  Ashe,  J.  R.  McLean,  William  Lander,  Burges 
S.  Gaither,  A.  T.  Davidson,  W.  N.  H.  Smith,  and  Archibald  H.  Arrington. 

This  Congress  held  four  sessions  in  Richmond  in  two  years,  and  enacted  most 
of  the  laws  of  the  Confederacy.  It  was  accused — I  will  not  say  justly — of  too  much 
subserviency  to  the  Executive,  and  for  nearly  all  of  the  enactments  considered 
oppressive,  by  the  people.     It  expired,  by  limitation,  on  the  18th  of  February,  1864. 

The  second  and  last  Permanent  Congress  convened  in  Richmond  on  the  2nd  of 


STATE  NORMAL  MAGAZINE.  77 


May,  1864.  The  changes  in  this,  compared  with  the  preceding  congress,  were 
remarkable  and  significant.  The  new  Senators  were  Richard  W.  Walker,  from 
Alabama;  Augustus  H.  Garland,  Arkansas;  John  W.  C.  Watson,  Mississippi,  and 
W.  A.  Graham,  from  North  Carolina.  The  changes  in  the  House  were  so  numer- 
ous as,  almost,  to  amount  to  a  new  congress.  Georgia  led  in  this  change,  returning 
nine  new,  out  of  its  ten  members.  North  Carolina  came  next  with  seven  out  of  ten. 
Texas  four  out  of  six,  etc.  It  was  remarkable  that  but  few  changes  were  made  in 
the  delegations  from  Kentucky  and  Missouri.  The  seven  new  Representatives  from 
North  Carolina  were  James  T.  Leach,  Josiah  Turner,  Jr.,  John  A.  Gilmer,  James  M. 
Leach,  George  W.  Logan,  James  G.  Ramsay,  and  Thomas  C.  Fuller.  Of  these, 
Gilmer  and  J.  M.  Leach  had  been  members  of  the  United  States  Congress;  the  oth- 
ers had  some  legislative  experience,  with  the  exception,  I  believe,  of  Messrs.  Logan 
and  Fuller. 

R.  M.  T.  Hunter,  of  Virginia,  was  elected  President  pro  tern,  of  the  Senate, 
and  Thomas  S.  Bocock,  also  of  Virginia,  was  again  elected  Speaker  of  the  House, 
having  occupied  that  position  in  the  preceding  congress.  The  outlook  of  the  Con- 
federacy, at  this  time,  was  gloomy  and  discouraging.  Furious  and  unrelenting  war 
had  raged  for  more  than  three  years.  Lincoln  had  called  out  eight  hundred  thou- 
sand men,  at  a  cost  of  nearly  three  thousand  million  dollars,  and  was  preparing  to 
call  for  as  many  more  men,  at  even  a  greater  outlay  of  money.  The  Mississipp1 
river  was  in  his  possession  from  mouth  to  source — thus  cutting  the  Confederacy  in 
twain.  The  whole  Atlantic  and  Gulf  coast,  with  the  exception  of  the  ports  of  Charles- 
ton, Savannah  and  Mobile,  which  were  closely  blockaded,  were  in  the  possession  of 
the  enemy.  Albert  Sydney  Johnston  and  "  Stonewall  "  Jackson  had  fallen — the  one 
in  the  hour  of  defeat,  the  other  in  the  hour  of  victory,  while  hundreds  of  other  lead- 
ers, the  pride  and  hope  of  the  country,  with  thousands  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
army,  had  fallen  on  bloody  fields  of  strife.  The  gallant  Lee  had  retired  from  Mary- 
land and  Pennsylvania  after  the  terrible  conflicts  of  Antietam  and  Gettysburg.  Grant 
with  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  veterans  was  entering  the  Wilderness,  to  be 
held  at  bay  by  Lee  with  less  than  half  that  number;  and  Sherman  with  an  army  nearly 
equal  to  Grant's  was  bearing  down  upon  Johnston,  who  stood  at  Dalton  with  fifty. 
five  thousand  to  dispute  hfs  "march  to  the  sea." __— — 

But  let  us  return  to  the  action  of  Congress.  ;  The  three  subjects  which  mainly 
attracted  the  attention  of  that  body  were,  the  support  and  recruiting  of  the  army; 


78  STATE  NORMAL  MAGAZINE. 


the  suspension  of  the  Writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  and  negotiations  for  peace.  The 
President,  backed  by  a  majority  in  Congress,  sought  to  allay  rising  discontent,  and 
avert  impending  evils  by  adding  to  the  exactions  of  existing  laws,  heavier  imposi- 
tions, and  more  rigorous  executions.  But  tythe  and  impressment  laws  could  not  be 
duplicated  and  enforced  upon  an  exhausted  people,  who  demanded  their  repeal 
rather  than  enforcement.  Neither  could  recruits  for  the  army  be  obtained,  for 
nearly  the  whole  of  the  white  male  population,  from  seventeen  to  sixty  years  of  age, 
was  already  subject  to  call  under  existing  laws. 

The  alternative,  in  the  opinion  of  many  was  subjugation  or  the  arming  of  the 
slaves.  The  delegation  from  North  Carolina  was  opposed  to  the  latter,  without 
being  in  favor  of  the  former.  On  the  27th  of  January,  1865,  the  House  having  under 
consideration  the  Senate  bill  for  the  employment  of  free  negroes  and  slaves  on  forti- 
fications and  in  hospitals,  Mr.  Ramsay  moved  as  a  proviso  "that  said  slaves  shall 
not  be  armed  or  used  as  soldiers."  Mr.  Miles  supported  the  proviso,  but  in  the 
midst  of  his  speech  the  House  went  into  secret  session.  On  the  29th  the  proviso 
was  voted  down  and  the  bill  passed.  Mr.  Barksdale's  bill  for  the  employment  of 
negro  troops  passed  the  House  on  the  10th  of  February,  but  was  rejected  in  the 
Senate  by  a  tie  vote — Wigfall  and  Maxwell  expressing'  unqualified  opposition,  Gra- 
ham, Orr  and  Hunter  speaking  against  it,  but  the  latter  gentleman  voting  for  it, 
under  instructions  from  the  legislature  of  his  state.  On  the  9th  of  March  the  House 
agreed  to  an  amendment  by  the  Senate  to  a  bill  arming  the  slaves,  by  a  vote  of  40 
to  26,  and  the  bill  became  a  law. 

HABEAS    CORPUS. 

In  November,  1864,  the  President  sent  a  message  to  congress,  in  secret  ses- 
sion, urging  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  alleging  the  existence  of 
a  secret  treasonable  conspiracy,  originated  by  the  enemy,  called  Heroes  of  America, 
as  prevalent  in  southwestern  Virginia,  part  of  east  Tennessee,  and  the  bordering 
counties  of  North  Carolina,  and  as  having,  even,  penetrati/ig  into  the  army.  The 
message  was  referred  to  the  judiciary  committee,  which  reported  the  indentical  bill 
passed  on  the  preceding  15th  of  February,  but  which  had  expired  in  August,  and 
recommended  its  re-enactment.  Russell  and  Rieves  of  Virginia  and  others  spoke 
ably  in  advocacy,  while  Baldwin,  Miles,  and  others  spoke  against  it  with  equal 
power.     The  whole  delegation  from  North  Carolina  opposed  its  passage.     As  a  por- 


STATE  NORMAL  MAGAZINE.  79 


tion  of  the  latter  state  was  implicated,  Mr.  Ramsay  felt  called  upon  to  say,  that  so 
far  as  the  Heroes  of  America  were  concerned  there  was  neither  secrecy  nor  danger. 
Every  thing  connected  with  the  order  had  been  revealed  and  published  in  his  State 
months  ago,  and  while  the  writ  was  suspended.  The  President  had  made  no  arrests 
then,  although  called  upon  to  do  so.  Why  did  he  wish  to  be  clothed  with  the 
power  now?  "This  looks  so  inconsistent,"  said  he,  "as  to  justify  a  suspicion  that 
the  existence  of  this  order  is  made  a  pretext  for  the  acquisition  of  power  to  be  used 
for  other  purposes." 

The  bill  passed  the  House  by  a  vote  of  37  to  32,  but  was  killed  in  the  Senate 
fay  a  vote  of  8  to  G.  On  the  13th  of  March  the  President  sent  a  second  message 
urging  the  suspension  of  the  writ,  but  Congress  arid  the  President  had  divergent 
views  on  this  subject,  and  the  former  failed  to  carry  out  the  views  of  the  latter  on 
this  important  subject. 

NEGOTIATIONS    FOR    PEACE. 

Many  members  of  this  Congress,  especially  the  new  members,  had  found  it  nec- 
essary to  promise  their  constituents  to  make  efforts  to  obtain  negotiations  for  peace. 
And  anxious  eyes  were  turned  toward  Congress,  in  the  hope  that  relief  might  be 
obtained  from  the  burdens  of  war,  otherwise  than  through  fields  of  strife  and  blood. 
Repeated  peace  propositions  had  been  made  in  the  Federal  Congress.  These  had  uni- 
formly failed,  but  had  been  sustained  by  a  respectable  minority.  On  the  14th  of 
December,  '63,  Fernando  Wood  introduced  a  resolution  in  the  House,  requesting  Mr. 
Lincoln  to  appoint  commissioners  to  treat  with  the  authorities  at  Richmond  to  restore 
this  Union  "  upon  terms  of  equity,  fraternity  and  equality,  under  the  Constitution." 
Fifty-nine,  out  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven,  votes  were  cast  in  favor  of  this  prop- 
osition. Sixteen  days  after  this,  Governor  Vance  wrote  to  Mr.  Davis  that  the  recent 
action  of  the  Federal  House,  though  meaning  but  little,  had  greatly  excited  the 
public  hope  that  the  Northern  mind  was  looking  towards  peace — that  it  seemed  to 
him  that  "  we  might  with  propriety  constantly  tender  negotiations." 

The  reply  of  the  President  was: 

"  This  struggle  must  continue  until  the  enemy  is  beaten  out  of  his  vain  confi- 
dence of  our  subjugation." 

I  cannot  stop  here  to  enumerate  all  the  sources  of  discontent  among  the  peo- 
ple, nor  the  grounds  of  hope  of  those  who  looked  for  peace.  I  can  only  allude  to 
the  fact  of  the  repreesentation  in  Congress  from  Kentucky,  Missouri  and  parts  of 


80  STATE  NORMAL  MAGAZINE. 


Virginia,  Louisiana  and  Tennessee,  by  those  who  had  no  constituency  that  could  be 
reached  by  Confederate  legislation — those  states  and  parts  of  states,  either  never 
having  left  the  Union,  or  having  returned  after  having  left;  and  to  the  additional 
fact  that  there  was  a  growing  distrust,  as  we  shall  see  as  we  proceed,  of  the  Presi- 
dent himself  and  his  Cabinet  in  certain  quarters.  Suffice  it  to  say  just  here,  that 
the  attitude  of  the  President,  backed  as  he  was  by  a  majority  in  the  Senate  and  two- 
thirds  in  the  House,  effectually  paralyzed  all  efforts  at  negotiations  for  peace,  except 
upon  the  unattainable  basis  of  the  complete  independence  of  the  Confederacy.  Thus- 
it  was  that  when  Mr.  J.  T.  Leach  at  one  time  and  Mr.  Turner  at  another,  in  com- 
pliance with  promises  made  to  their  constituents,  introduced  resolutions  looking 
towards  peace,  the  House  immediately  went  into  secret  session,  from  which  the  res- 
olutions never  emerged.      And  thus  it  was  throughout. 

In  his  message  November  7,  '64,  the  President  took  a  hopeful  and  sanguine 
view  of  the  situation.  "Atlanta,"  said  he,  "had  fallen,  but  would  be  of  no  ulti- 
mate advantage  to  the  enemy,  and  had  we  been  compelled  to  evacuate  Richmond 
the  Confederacy  would  remain  as  defiant  as  ever.  No  military  success  of  the  enemy 
can  accomplish  the  destruction  of  the  Confederacy." 

But  the  military  situation  grew  more  alarming  and  critical,  and  the  determina- 
tion of  the  people  for  negotiations  for  a  secession  of  hostilities  and  for  peace,  in  some 
form  or  other,  grew  stronger  instead  of  weaker.  The  President  and  his  Cabinet 
became  the  objects  of  attack.  Mr.  Seddon  retired  as  Secretary  of  War  and  General 
Breckenridge  succeeded  him.  Governor  Brown,  of -Georgia,  in  a  message  to  the 
Legislature  of  that  state,  asserted  that  "  our  government  was  now  a  military  despot- 
ism, drifting  into  anarchy,  and,  if  the  present  policy  is  persisted  in,  must  terminate  in 
reconstruction,  with  or  without  subjugation."  And,  after  recommending  the  taking 
from  the  President  his  power  as  commander-in-chief,  and  the  calling  of  a  convention 
to  amend  the  Constitution,  he  uttered  these  thrilling  words,  "  The  night  is  dark,  the 
tempest  howls,  the  ship  is  lashed  with  turbulent  waves,  the  helmsman  is  steering  to 
the  whirlpool,  our  remonstrances  are  unheeded,  and  we  must  restrain  him,  or  the 
crew  must  sink  together,  buried  in  irretrievable  ruin." 

But,  before  this  philippic  had  been  delivered,  Congress  had  passed  the  act  creat- 
ing the  office  of  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy,  and  General 
Lee  had  been  appointed  to  that  exalted  position. 

It  is  due  to  the  President  to  state  that  he  had  made  to  two  or  more  unavailing 


STATE  NORMAL  MAGAZINE.  81 


■efforts  at  negotiations — just  how  far  he  authorized  the  Niagara  conference  in  July 
""64,  and  the  visit  of  the  Blairs  to  Richmond  in  January,  '65,  I  fail  to  know;  but  on 
the  28th  of  the  latter  month  he  authorized  Messrs.  Stephens,  Hunter  and  Campbell 
to  hold  a  peace  conference  in  Hampton  Roads  with  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Secretary  Sew- 
ard. The  conference  failed  of  peaceful  results,  because  our  commissioners  were  not 
authorized  to  make  peace  on  any  other  terms  than  the  recognition  of  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  Confederacy. 

Now  came  the  last  grand  effort  to  "fire  the  Southern  heart"  anew.  On  the 
"9th  of  February  an  immense  mass  meeting  was  held  in  the  African  church  in  Rich- 
mond, presided  over  by  Mr.  Hunter.  Speeches  were  made  by  the  President,  Mr. 
Benjamin,  Mr.  Gilmer  and  others,  which  were  enthusiastically  applauded,  and  reso- 
lutions were  passed  mutually  pledging  life,  fortune  and  sacred  honor  to  maintain 
liberty  and  independence.  This  was  followed  by  many  similar  meetings  throughout 
the  country.      But  they  were  the  flickerings,  only,  of  the  expiring  lamp. 

And,  now,  many  brave  and  true  men  seeing  that  the  resources  of  the  Confeder- 
acy were  exhausted  and  that  the  united  action  of  the  states  had  failed  to  secure  a 
cessation  of  hostilities,  began  seriously  to  contemplate  and  propose  separate  state 
action.  But  to  this — -the  very  cornerstone  of  the  Confederacy — the  President  was 
as  resolutely  opposed,  as  he  was  to  compromise  of  any  kind,  because  it  involved 
reconstruction. 

And  here,  at  the  risk  of  being  prolix,  I  wish  to  show  the  position  of  Governor 
Graham,  as  well  as  that  of  the  President,  on  this  vital  subject.  Senator  Oldham,  of 
Texas,  in  an  article  in  De  Bow ' s  Review  for  October,  1869,  speaks  as  follows: 

"A  few  days  after  the  Hampton  Roads'  conference  a  committee,  consisting  of 
Messrs.  Orr,  Graham  and  Johnston,  was  appointed,  by  the  Senate,  to  confer  with 
the  President  and  ascertain  what  he  proposed  to  do  under  the  existing  condition  of 
affairs.  In  a  few  days  they  made  a  verbal  report,  through  Mr.  Graham.  Among 
other  things  they  stated  that  they  had  inquired  of  the  President  his  views  and  opin- 
ions with  regard  to  proposing  to  the  United  States  to  negotiate  for  peace  upon  the 
basis  of  the  Confederacy  returning  to  the  Union,  and  that  the  President  had  answered 
J  that  he  had  no  power  to  negotiate  a  treaty  upon  such  a  basis;  *  *  *  that  the 
states  alone,  each  acting  for  itself,  in  its  sovereign  capacity,  could  make  such  a 
treaty. ' 

' '  Mr.  Graham  said  he  gave  notice  that  in  a  few  days  he  would  introduce  a  res- 


82  STATE  NORMAL  MAGAZINE. 


olution  in  favor  of  opening  negotiations  with  the  United  States  upon  the  basis  of  a 
return  to  the  Union  by  the  states  of  the  Confederacy.  *  *  *  The  notice  was 
received  in  svch  a  manner  that  he  never  offered  his  resolution." 

On  the  13th  of  March — just  five  days  before  Congress  adjourned — the  Presi- 
dent sent  in  a  message,  stating  that  the  enemy  was  jubilant,  our  people  greatly  dis- 
couraged and  Richmond  in  greater  danger  than  at  any  time  before  during  the  war; 
that  the  people  were  looking  to  Congress  for  relief,  but  that  the  measures  passed  for 
recruiting  the  army  were  inadequate.  And  he  recommended  more  vigorous  impress- 
ments for  supplies,  the  abolition  of  all  exemptions  from  military  duty,  the  suspen- 
sion of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  and  the  impressment  of  all  the  gold  and  silver  coir* 
of  the  country  if  it  could  not  be  borrowed. 

To  this  message  Congress  replied,  through  a  committee,  that  all  the  measures 
recommended  by  the  President  to  promote  the  efficiency  of  the  army  have  been* 
adopted,  except  the  entire  repeal  of  class  exemptions  and  some  measures  suggested 
by  him,  such  as  the  creation  of  the  office  of  general-in-chief,  were  originated  and 
passed  by  Congress  with  a  view  to  the  restoration  of  public  confidence  by  the  ener- 
getic administration  of  military  affairs.  *  *  *  Congress  does  not  concur  in  the 
opinion  of  the  President  that  the  suspension  of  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  is  indispensable  to  the  successful  conduct  of  the  war. 

On  the  18th  of  March,  1865,  Congress  met  for  the  last  time.  Its  sessions  were 
in  secret.  A  bill  amending  the  impressment  laws  was  passed;  also  a  bill  authoriz- 
ing the  impressment  of  three  million  dollars  in  coin,  if  it  could  not  be  borrowed;  and 
in  case  of  a  future  loan,  the  levying  of  a  tax  of  twenty-five  per  cent,  on  all  the  gold 
and  silver  coin,  bullion  and  foreign  exchange,  in  the  Confederacy,  pledging  the  cot- 
ton and  tobacco  of  the  government  for  payment. 

Mr.  Watson,  on  behalf  of  the  joint  committee  appointed  to  wait  on  the  Presi- 
dent and  inform  him  of  the  readiness  of  Congress  to  adjourn,  reported  that  the  com- 
mittee had  discharged  that  duty  and  that  the  President  had  stated  that  he  had  no> 
further  communication  to  make;  that  in  his  recent  message  he  had  fully  explained 
his  views  as  to  the  legislation  needed  by  the  country;  *  *  *  but  to  the  full 
extent  of  his  power  and  the  resources  placed  at  his  disposal  all  might  feel  assured  of 
his  purpose,  faithfully  to  protect  and  defend  the  country. 

Congress  then  adjourned  to  meet  in  the  following  October.  But  it  was  to  meet 
no  more.     In  sixteen  days  Richmond  was  evacuated — the  Confederate  stores  and 


f 


STATE  NORMAL  MAGAZINE.  83 


warehouses  were  set  on  fire,  against  the  protest  of  the  citizens,  by  our  retreating 
forces;  the  legislature  of  Virginia  was  on  its  way  to  another  seat  for  its  deliberations, 
and  the  President,  with  a  portion  of  his  Cabinet  and  all  the  coin  of  the  government, 
was  hastening  toward  the  savannas  of  the  South.  Seven  days  more  and  Lee  had  laid 
down  his  sword  at  Appomattox  and  the  end  had  come,  not  alone  of  Congress,  but 
of  the  Confederacy. 

The  bravest  now  saw  what  the  wisest  had  long  foreseen — an  end  of  strife  and 
bloodshed,  for  which  the  friends  of  peace  had  longed  and  prayed. 

Salisbury,  N.  C,  March  22,  1900. 


OPPORTUNITY. 


The  key  of  yesterday 

I  threw  away 

And  now  too  late 

Before  to-morrow's  close-locked  gate 

Helpless  I  stand — in  vain  to  pray! 

In  vain  to  sorrow  i 

Only  the  key  of  yesterday 

Unlocks  tc-morrdw. 


PEISCILLA  LEONARD. 


84  STATE    NORMAL  MAGAZINE. 


ZACK  THOMPSON,  THE  BLACKSMITH. 


I,UCY  McGEE    GI.ENN. 


The  dingy  little  blacksmith  shop  stands  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  behind  the  village 
graveyard,  its  only  avenue  of  approach  being  the  narrow  road  that  winds  down  the 
hill  to  the  left  of  the  old  rock  wall  over  which  the  tall  tombstones  stare  through  the 
long  days  and  nights.  A  little  distance  from  the  shop  may  be  seen  the  home  of  the 
blacksmith.  Here  the  usual  order  of  things  seems  to  be  reversed.  The  vegetable 
garden  instead  of  being  in  the  rear  is  just  in  front  of  the  house.  In  fact,  the  corn 
patch  extends  to  the  very  doorstep,  while  the  pumpkin  vines  that  twine  about  the 
cornstalks  climb  up  over  the  porch  and  facing  of  the  door  and  hang  a  big  yellow 
pumpkin  on  the  door  knob.  The  house  can  scarcely  be  seen  from  the  front,  it  is 
such  an  insignificant  thing  compared  with  the  corn  and  the  pumpkins.  In  the  back 
yard  smutty  pots  and  kettles,  dingy  feather  beds  and  pillows,  with  various  other 
household  furnishings,  are  displayed  as  if  for  sale.  The  shop  is  smutty  and  dingy — 
all  blacksmith  shops  are;  but  the  home,  if  such  it  may  be  called,  is  smuttier  and 
dingier  and  infinitely  more  dreary. 

On  a  gusty  November  night,  when  the  wind  moans  in  the  trees  like  lost  souls, 
and  grewsome  shadows  from  the  forge  fire  flit  around  the  entrance  of  the  shop,  the 
smith  delights  to  tell  ghost  tales  to  the  little  boys  who  steal  away  from  their  mammas 
after  tea.  He  is  a  tall,  broad-shouldered  half-breed,  or  "yaller  nigger,"  with  clean- 
cut  features  and  keen  black  eyes;  on  the  whole,  somewhat  like  an  Indian.  To-night 
he  has  only  one  little  boy  to  listen  to  his  tales,  and  while  he  talks  he  sharpens  the 
little  boy's  knife.      He  finishes  the  knife  with  the  story  and  the  two  gaze  at  the  fire. 

"  Well,  Uncle  Zack,"  says  the  little  boy,  "  if  you'd  go  to  sleep  like  other  folks 
I  don't  believe  the  hanks  would  pester  you.  Mamma  says  the'  aint  no  such  things, 
anyhow." 

"  Lord,  chile,  you  ain't  got  no  sense  in  yo'  head.  Sposin'  you  had  the  heart 
disease,  what  guv  yer  the  pulsions  every  time  yer  laid  down,  then,  howd'd  yer  keep 
from  seein'  de  hants  ? ' ' 

"  Now,  Uncle  Zack,  you  know  you  haven't  got  the  heart  disease,"  says  the  lit- 
tle boy. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


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FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


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